Techmeme
June 30, 2022, 7:45 PM

Top News

Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Sources: FTX is close to finalizing a term sheet to buy BlockFi for ~$25M and a deal could be signed by July 1; PitchBook: BlockFi was valued at $4.8B in 2021  —  - Crypto exchange FTX is close to finalizing a term sheet to buy BlockFi and a deal is expected to be signed by the end of this week …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Source: FTX walked away from a deal with Celsius after finding the crypto lender had a $2B hole in its balance sheet and was difficult to deal with  —  - FTX was interested in making a deal with Celsius but walked away because of the state of its finances, two sources told The Block.
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Raspberry Pi announces the Pico W, a $6 microcontroller equipped with an 802.11n Wi-Fi radio, powered by an Infineon CYW43439 chip with Bluetooth disabled  —  It's the Pico, but it knows about the network  —  Raspberry Pi has introduced a successor to last year's Pico …
Rita Liao / TechCrunch:
OpenSea warns all its users of email phishing attempts after an employee at email vendor Customer.io downloaded and sent email details to an external party  —  Opensea, the popular NFT marketplace that hit a colossal $13 billion valuation in January, is warning users of email phishing after a data breach.
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Apple's CarPlay update, demoed at WWDC 2022, will let users tap an app to navigate to a pump and buy gas from its dashboard as early as this fall  —  Apple Inc (AAPL.O) wants you to start buying gas directly from your car dashboard as early as this fall, when the newest version …
Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg:
Bitcoin is on track for its worst quarter since Q3 2011, plunging 58%, after sliding 6%+ to fall below $19,000 on Thursday, the second time in a fortnight  —  Bitcoin is on track for its worst quarter in more than a decade, as more hawkish central banks and a string of high-profile crypto blowups hammer sentiment.
Katie Paul / Reuters:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Google updates its built-in password manager for Chrome and Android with the option to manually add passwords across all platforms, a unified design, and more  —  A ‘simplified and unified management experience’ is also on the way  —  Google is updating its built-in password manager …
Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg:
CoinFlex postpones resuming withdrawals; CEO says they will return “as soon as possible, upon a successful raise” but won't share how much its token has raised  —  Cryptocurrency exchange CoinFlex won't resume withdrawals Thursday as it had planned as it continues to raise funds …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Apple says South Korean app developers can now use external payment methods from KCP, Inicis, Toss, and NICE by submitting a new app version, saving 4% in fees  —  Earlier this year, Apple announced that it would comply with a new law in South Korea that required the company to allow third-party payment providers in App Store apps.
Bloomberg:
Filing: ex-Apple retail chief Ron Johnson's at-home tech setup company Enjoy files for bankruptcy, less than a year after its SPAC merger, and sells to Asurion  —  Enjoy Technology Inc., a retail startup founded by former Apple Inc. executive Ron Johnson, filed for bankruptcy on Thursday …
Ari Notis / Kotaku:
Unity lays off “slightly more than 200 people”, or 4% of its workforce, two weeks after the CEO said at an all-hands meeting that there would not be any layoffs  —  Management at the company behind the free game development engine has been a ‘shit show’ recently, sources say
Reuters:
An investigation details an Indian hacking-for-hire scheme to obtain documents in legal cases, starting in 2013 and targeting 100+ US and European organizations  —  A trove of thousands of email records uncovered by Reuters reveals Indian cyber mercenaries hacking parties involved …
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Gene Levoff, a former lawyer at Apple, pleads guilty to insider trading; he allegedly traded ahead of quarterly earnings from 2011 to 2016 and was fired in 2018  —  The former top corporate lawyer at Apple Inc (AAPL.O) pleaded guilty on Thursday to insider trading charges …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
April, which personalizes and autofills tax filings by using AI to analyze tax code, raised a $30M Series A led by Treasury, bringing its total funding to $40M  —  Most Americans dread doing their taxes.  Surveys show as much.  But as many as 40% rely on money from tax refunds to satisfy some financial obligation.
More: FinSMEs
Maria Heeter / The Information:
Source: eToro and the SPAC company that agreed to take it public are planning to let the June 30 deadline for their merger pass without closing the deal  —  Online brokerage EToro and the special purpose acquisition company that agreed to take it public are planning to let the deadline …
More: Reuters
Joyce Lee / Reuters:
Samsung becomes the first company to mass produce 3nm chips, beating TSMC, touting up to 45% lower power usage over 5nm chips, 23% more performance, and more  —  Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) said on Thursday it has begun mass producing chips with advanced 3-nanometre technology …
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
YouTube says channels can't hide subscriber counts starting on June 29 to fight fake accounts, and rolls out an “increase strictness” comment moderation setting  —  Spam isn't a new problem for social media, but everyone seems to agree that it's gotten a lot worse lately.
Karen Weise / New York Times:
Documents show Amazon has restricted items and search results related to LGBTQ people and issues in the UAE, after the Emirati government threatened penalties  —  Sales of items including flags and books were blocked in the country, where homosexuality is criminalized.  — Give this article- - - Read in app

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:45 PM ET, June 30, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Wired:

Earlier Picks

Zeke Faux / Bloomberg:
Financial Times:
Financial Times:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: